


At LIBERTY headquarters

by I_hate_mages_No_you_dont



Series: The vet, the cat and the soldier [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age - Various Authors, Dragon Age II
Genre: And his boss is called Justice, Anders is an investigative journalist, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 04:14:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11267727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_hate_mages_No_you_dont/pseuds/I_hate_mages_No_you_dont
Summary: The head editor of the LIBERTY newspaper is having a busy evening. When a young woman named Merrill dares to spill important information on one of his most explosive investigations he wants his best man at it.This is an additional plot line to the story going on in "the vet, the cat and the soldier", which sheds some light on the things Anders has to deal with.(by glowelf)





	At LIBERTY headquarters

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like the little teaser! This chapter actually takes place in the near future of "the vet, the cat and the soldier", in case you were wondering ;)
> 
> I put this whole thing down in one night, if there are any spelling mistakes let me know and I´ll remove them. Comments are love <3

 

It was a ghastly afternoon and a cold wind was howling through the city. It pulled strongly on the black leather jacket of a tall man, but he didn´t sling the arms around his chest or as much as frown at the weather. He crossed the street with determined, long steps, while he texted someone.

Roughly 600 messages had left his mobile already. And the night was still ahead of him!

 

The man opened the double door to a tall building as if he owned the place – a part of it actually belonged to him – and greeted the receptionist with a short nod.

After spurting up the stairs to the fourth floor, which was the man´s usual pace and standard procedure, for he saw no sense in using an elevator, he entered a small conference room. There he sat down on one of the chairs and waited.

 

Two minutes later, a shy knock was to be heard and the man´s crystal clear blue eyes lit up.

 

“Do come in!”, he offered with his booming voice and a thin woman appeared in the door frame.

 

“Thanks for meeting me, Mr Justice!”, said the woman and tucked one of her dark hair strands behind her ear. “Oh, and thank you for replying that fast. I didn´t expect to hear from you so soon. It is good to have someone to talk to, I mean, I couldn´t tell anybody else and… Sorry, I´m babbling. Always do that, when being nervous.”

 

“Please sit down”, offered the man, who still wore his leather jacket. “And it´s Justice. Only Justice. One of my many nicknames.” Before the visitor had a chance to react, Justice added: “Don´t look at me like that. I don´t pick them myself.”

He got the inevitable surprised look anyway, but at least the woman didn´t insist on discussing the matter and wasting valuable time. It usually took people two and a half minutes to figure out why he was called Justice or the Spirit or… Two and a half long minutes! And that although he was the well-known head editor of the newspaper LIBERTY!

 

“Um, in that case, hi, I´m Merrill”, she chirped instead and stretched out her hand for a formal greeting. Justice shook it and afterwards placed his folded hands on the table in front of him.

 

“Let´s get started then. You said you had more information about, and I quote, `the corruption´ of your boss, who is…?”

 

Merrill grabbed the small yellow bag on her lap a little tighter. “Mrs Meredith Stannard”, she whispered.

 

“Ah.”

Justice gave her a knowing look. Mrs Meredith Stannard. One of the mightiest persons in the city. Ruthless leader of the pharmaceutical concern T.E.M.P.L.A.R.S. And archenemy of one of his reporters and friends.

 

“I was told you were already investigating this… case?”, asked Merrill, her huge eyes filled with fear. “I-I never wanted to cause any trouble! Being a scientist in the concern is a great honour. But… Bad things are happening. I never spoke up. Mrs Stannard told me, if I kept my mouth shut she´d make me the new assistant of the chief science officer. And then suddenly my friend is dead… What shall I do? I don´t want to harm the concern. Think of all the people working there! And all the people who we help with our drugs…”

 

A guilty side-glance told Justice all he needed to know.

 

“But this is not right. You have an obligation.”

 

Despite his rather blunt comment, Merrill threw a hopeful glance at him. “Do I?”

 

It took him three minutes to convince the small woman that her act was righteous.

 

“You see, your boss needs to be stopped. And any information, which helps us, ensures that justice will be served. To put it short: You´re here. You´ve got new information on our case. Fantastic!”

 

To his surprise Merrill started giggling. Patiently Justice waited for the irritating sound to vanish.

 

“Sorry!”, the scientist excused herself. “You´re funny… You remind me of a character I saw on tv.”

Following the rather concerning train of thought that he might be funny, Justice rubbed over his buzz cut. He denied himself to respond to such distractions. But he raised a critical eyebrow.

 

 

 

Later.

Merrill was walking next to Justice and easily kept up with him. When they reached the elevators, Justice expected her to stop and wait.

 

“Thank you, Merrill. You did the right thing”, Justice said and intended to turn and take his leave.

 

“Thanks for supporting my choice”, replied Merrill. She had blushed a little and remained at his side, even as he opened the door to the stairway. Justice hesitated a second. Apparently the small woman took that as an invitation. She passed through the door with a coy nod.

 

The started to take the stairs downwards and Justice couldn´t help it, but needed to comment on it.

“You´re taking the steps…”

 

“Yes, sure. I like walking everywhere. Gives you time to think. Or share a nice conversation.”

 

Looking up from the mobile, he automatically had pulled out of his pocket, he realised that Merrill was watching him curiously. Slightly taken aback Justice mumbled: “I never considered that an option.”

 

 

 

Justice watched Merrill´s car disappear around a street corner, before he dared to get on his mobile again. He speed dialled Anders´ number and sighed, since the reporter didn´t pick up immediately.

 

“…hi, this is Anders´ voice mail. Please leave a message after the-“

 

“I know it´s you”, interrupted Justice the weak attempt at making a joke. “And you´re not funny.”

 

“Oh I can be, if I want to.”

 

“I know and now is an unsuitable time for it. You´ve got work to do.”

 

There was a pause on the other end of the line, as if Anders needed to think about it. Of course there were no alternatives to working.

“Actually I was in the middle of... something over here”, replied Anders.

 

Justice ignored the comment and mercilessly continued his part of the conversation.

“Just had a meeting with one of THEIR scientists. A nice young lady. She gave us a hint. Meredith is seeing one of the potential buyers tonight. Might be worth a visit. It´s very likely you will find out something valuable, if you listen in on that conversation.”

 

Another pause. Then a defeated sigh. Such reactions always made Justice wonder. Like so many others, Anders had faced injustice in his past and therefore started to work for LIBERTY. Why he – admittedly only on rare occasions – complained about working for the money he was paid, was beyond Justice´s understanding. Obviously the only thing which mattered was delivering justice wherever people had been wronged or harmed. He hadn´t gotten that nickname for nothing!  

 

“Yeah… Of course I will be there…”, replied Anders, but he didn´t sound very enthusiastic. “Text me the address, will you?”

 

“I mailed it to you six minutes ago.”

 

“Great…”

 

Justice closed his leather jacket and headed for his car. The wind was still blowing and the temperature had dropped further. Heavy black clouds were threatening with a thunderstorm and Justice was glad he had another appointment inside.

 

“You know what day it is today, right?”, muttered Anders.

 

Not wanting to bother with the certainly rhetorical question, Justice checked his watch – he wasn´t late yet – and offered: “Saturday?”

Then he hang up.

 

The question what might be so special about the day could wait. Anders´ strange behaviour though still bothered Justice, when he reached his destination about 20 minutes later.

 

To get to Meredith Anders had endured many sleepless nights. Justice had thought about getting Anders off the case more than once, for the man had been investing too much and endangered himself while doing so. Anders had also achieved more than anybody else with their research on T.E.M.P.L.A.R.S.

 

 _How curious_ , thought Justice and made a mental note to investigate on the matter as soon as his full schedule would allow it.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
